Shillong, April 10 : Meghalaya Speaker Bindo Lanong today admitted that he had a difficult time last night taking the final decision on the disqualification of the four legislators who had crossed the floor.
The four legislators — Paul Lyngdoh of Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement, Deputy Speaker Sanbor Shullai of the Nationalist Congress Party and Independents Ismail Marak and Limison Momin — had deserted the NCP-UDP-led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance last month for the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance.
The disqualification decision was crucial for the Speaker as he had been facing a lot of criticism from the MUA for trying to disqualify the legislators, while the MPA thought he was going slow on the decision.
Caught in a dilemma, the Speaker had to “burn the midnight oil” to arrive at a final decision. “I have really burnt the midnight oil. I have only followed the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution to disqualify the legislators,” he told The Telegraph.
Lanong said foreseeing the political crisis, he had collected several documents and court orders from outside and from his library to study the various aspects of disqualification of legislators in case such a situation arose.
The Speaker, who is a lawyer, also consulted his colleagues in Gauhati High Court and Supreme Court on the implications of going ahead with the disqualifications.
According to Lanong, there will not be any room for further appeal on part of the disqualified legislators as he has quoted previous instances of Supreme Court upholding similar decisions.
He said the Tenth Schedule was very strong and exhaustive. The parameters laid down in the Constitution were definite and rigid and every small move by a legislator intending to switch allegiance to another party attracted the provisions of the anti-defection law.
“If I don’t go by the provisions of the law, I will be blamed by the people that I had been bought by the political parties,” he added.
The Speaker said his order might act as a deterrent for legislators to change their allegiance. At the same time, he admitted that “there will be some unscrupulous legis-lators who, under greed for money, can change loyalties.”
CLP leader D.D. Lapang said the final disqualification of the four legislators was “illegal and unconstitutional and the MUA still has 31 legislators and would go ahead with government formation” once the governor invited them. There are indications that the governor may call the MUA to form the government after withdrawal of President’s rule.
The four legislators have decided to move the high court next week against their disqualification.
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